Low Cost Speed Detector

I'm not sure why the wind speed is of particular relevance.

This can be very difficult ground, as policing the area is really the job of the police. There is a boundary point beyond which one exposes onesself to the risk of prosecution for 'taking the law into one's own hand', as it were, which must vary from country to country.

A simple technique is to mimic the speed camera, a recent introduction to the roads of many European countries. When a vehicle goes past at speed, set off a camera flashgun pointing towards its rear. It doesn't make any difference whether a picture is taken. And if the driver stops in response to the flash and comes to query it, just slip the flashgun into a pocket and deny all knowledge of it: "There's a storm brewing". It's a surprisingly effective technique at turning repetitive miscreants into law-abiding citizens!

BTW: Lieutenant Gruber's armoured car isn't fast enough to do this. I'll just have to nab it for inappropriate parking.

Feel free to in form me of your results. Anything to address speed violators in my neighborhood will be quickly employed.

speed kills. I quit.

The cheapest is to have a measured distance on the road and measure the time between the marks. Speed is a distance per time. A simple calculation will change the measured distance and time to miles(or km) per hour

Formula 3600 sec X measured distance in km or miles divide by time Y in seconds

measured distance = x in km or miles (i.e 100 meters = .1 km. 200 feet =0.0378 miles)

Time to traverse x = Y seconds (i.e 10 sec or 5 sec)

speed = x km /y seconds (i.e .1km / 10 sec or 5 sec)

convert to hours multiply by 3600 and divide by Y

i.e 3600 seconds X .1 km /10 seconds = 36 km per hour, or

3600 seconds X .1 km / 5 seconds = 72 km per hour

There are inexpensive radar guns and kits available on the net.

Another choice is just to use a video camera. Measure the time between when the front of a car enters the frame and when it leaves, divide by the distance = speed. You can count the frames on a computer with video processing s/w.

I have a similar problem where I live. I've been toying with the idea of building a robot with a video camera on an arm. The arm would follow each car as it passed by, and I could calculate the speed by the change in angle, but mostly it would just be fun to have people know that a robot is tracking them.

I would talk to your police or dept of transportation. They may have one of those speed finders available to set up on your street - the kind with a big lighted display that says "Your speed is XX MPH". Or just ask the police to send a patrolman over - speeding tickets are easy money for a lot of police departments.

I believe you mean that you live on a road that winds (wye-nds). I had also wondered what wind speed had in connection to the problem. The fact that the road isn't straight means that some drivers, especially fast ones, tend to take the whole road width when negotiating the turn.

Let's see. There are radar guns that can be purchased but I don't know how much they cost.

An alternative, as one suggested, is to use the camera frames to calculate the speed. To do that automatically, you'll need software which I haven't seen or heard about but may be available if you look around.

Another alternative would be to install two photo-sensors where a timer starts when one is triggered and stops when the next one is triggered. The disadvantage of that is when there is other traffic on the road (such as civilians, bikes, etc) that can confuse the timing.

Have you talked to the local police? I know that in some situations the police in the UK have supplied hand held speed cameras to be used by citizens. Perhaps your police have a similar scheme.

Instead of prosecution (your's) {you could be charged by the police for causing a traffic hazard} and the inherent danger of a private citizen doing the job of the local police why don't you get every person who lives on the street to sign a petition to install speed humps or similar speed reducing obstacles to your local council . Get some data from your local Road Traffic Authority on the amount of crashes that have occurred in the street. ( This can be done in Australia). These statistics are taken by the RTA for "Federal Blackspot" funding. Prevention is better than prosecution.

I don't think I'd recommend speed humps, apart from the damage they would do to your own car you'd have to put up with the engine noise as vehicles slowed down for each hump & accelerated away after each one, especially if a lot of heavy vehicles use the road. They are also a real pain for emergency vehicles that need to get somewhere quickly.

I would rather throw myself in front of each speeding car than go the speed bump route. I specifically bought a house in a neighborhood that had neither speed bumps nor security gates. I hate them both.

"Make Magazine" had an article recently on how to modify a child's toygun radar gun to make it usable for this sort of thing. You could then use a video camera to watch the radar gun, a clock, and the micreant.

Or, better yet, have the police patrol closely. My local constabulary is very interested in the use of the two lane rural road in front of our farm for very high speed motorcycle shenanigans.

Some cities install small roundabouts to discourage the speed.

Redesign your mailbox so that it looks like some fancy gadget. Then put a sign some distance away that says:

"WARNING! YOU ARE ENTERING A RADAR MONITORED AREA!"

Years ago, whilst fleeing a hurricane through Mississippi, I was traveling on a two lane winding highway (a logging highway) in a torrential downpour. Every few miles there would be signs that read

"3 people killed here on (date)"

"5 people killed here on (date)"

and, my favorite,

"WELCOME TO DEADLY 98, THE MOST DANGEROUS ROAD IN THE SOUTH"

In the NW - Oregon, they have what are called safety corridors. As I understand it, wherever a certain criteria of accidents/injuries/fatalities occur, a corridor is established. These corridors are more heavily policed and fines are significantly higher.

I have driven in some of these safety corridors. They seem to be a magnet for crazy drivers. The scariest are the truck drivers that don't seem to care who is around them.

The loved ones of car accident victims in Australia have been putting little white crosses on the side of the road (with flowers, keepsakes.etc.). A bit morbid for me, but it does make you slow down if your creaping over the limit.

Behold the Speedy Radar Gun Kit

http://www.hobbytron.com/r-sg7.html

$59!!

Today, at least, you ARE 'The Man'.

Kudos